'D.C. madam' names a purported customer

Story Highlights

• Escort-service operator describes man as a regular client • Harlan K. Ullman says "allegations do not dignify a response" • Ullman a leading theorist behind "shock and awe" strategy in Iraq war • Name dropped during hearing on changing lawyers

Adjust font size:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The alleged "D.C. madam" dropped a name in court documents filed Thursday, but the man named laughed at being accused of hiring the high-end escort service run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

Government prosecutors say Pamela Martin and Associates was actually a prostitution ring that Palfrey operated in the Washington area for 13 years. Palfrey denies that her business provided sexual services to its customers.

In her motion to reconsider appointment of counsel, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman as "one of the regular customers" of the business.

Ullman is one of the leading theorists behind the "shock and awe" military strategy that was associated with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"The allegations do not dignify a response," Ullman told CNN. "I'm a private, not a public, citizen. Any further questions are referred to my attorneys."

Ullman -- a former Navy commander and "a highly respected and widely recognized expert in national security whose advice is sought by governments and businesses," according to his Web site -- also said he is considering "some sort of legal action."

His attorney, Marc Mukasey of Bracewell & Giuliani in New York, declined to add to his client's comment.

Palfrey's civil defense attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, told CNN that it was his understanding that Ullman used the business' services but did not engage in sexual activity with the escorts.

Palfrey is fighting a multiple-count racketeering and money-laundering indictment. Her attorneys have been engaged in a battle with the court over documents that list the names and personal information of her clients.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler has restricted access to the documents, but Sibley argued that the order applies to the originals of the documents, not to copies.

Copies have already been given to a media outlet, he said.

The motion filed Thursday asks the judge to install Sibley in place of the public defender Palfrey has been assigned for the criminal case, and to order the government to continue to pay for her defense. The government has seized her assets, and she cannot afford to pay on her own.

Sibley is Palfrey's attorney in a civil case against one of her former employees.